reLAKSation 437
Way off Target: It was inevitable that one day, a major US supermarkets would decide to remove farmed salmon from its shelves. Seafood.com report that Target (1750 stores in 49 states) has ‘eliminated’ all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen and smoked offering from all its stores. From now all salmon sold under the Target owned brands will be wild-caught Alaskan salmon. In addition all salmon sushi will be made from wild caught salmon by the end of the year.
Target has taken this decision after consultation with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to ensure that its salmon offerings are sourced in a sustainable way that helps to preserve abundance, species health and doesn’t harm local habitats. They say that many salmon farms impact on the environment in numerous ways – pollution, chemicals, parasites and non-native farmed fish that escape all affect the natural habitat and the native salmon in surrounding areas.
As we suggest, this decision was to be expected. After all, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has mounted a long standing and sustained campaign against farmed salmon, promoting wild Alaskan salmon instead.
It is interesting that the representative from the Monterey Bay Aquarium who welcomed this decision was not the Managing Director, James Hekkers nor Ed Cassano, Senior Director of the Seafood Watch programme, but Julie Packard Executive Director and Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees (the Chairman Dr Peter Bing was obviously unavailable too). Julie Packard is also a member of the board of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation which according to Vivian Krause has granted the Monterey Bay Aquarium nearly $372 million since 2000.
Vivian Krause is the author of an excellent blog – the Fish Farm Fuss http://fairquestions.typepad.com/fishfarmfuss/ which examines how consumers are being discouraged from buying farmed fish through a programme of ‘demarketing’. We, at Callander McDowell, plan to look at this whole subject in a future issue of reLAKSation..
The huge amounts of money flowing from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other organisations that work against the salmon farming industry is clearly instrumental in Target’s decision to remove farmed salmon from its stores. It seems that what is effectively a tourist attraction, designed to entertain the public (entry $29.95) using fish caught from the wild is simply the plaything of the Packard Foundation in their campaign to persuade consumers to eat the fish and seafood that the Packard Foundation think consumers should be eating. The tone of their campaign is set by one of the greeting cards sold in the aquarium that states ‘Farmed fish aren’t the answer’ (see http://fairquestions.typepad.com/fishfarmfuss/2009/12/index.html).
If farmed fish aren’t the answer, then why are the Alaskan salmon industry farming salmon in hatcheries throughout the State? There is no difference between a hatchery raised farmed salmon and a hatchery raised wild one. In fact, that Alaskan salmon industry is clearly misleading consumers by suggesting that they are wild but such facts are lost in the campaign to discredit farmed salmon.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium also are happy to ignore the fact that huge quantities of fattened salmon are released out to sea, well in excess of what the natural runs would support and these fish which have been given a significant start in life then out-compete for feed with any truly wild fish present. In their press release Target say that salmon farming affects the natural habitat but ignore the reality that there is nothing natural about wild Alaskan salmon. Of course the positive publicity for wild salmon generated by the generous funding from the Packard Foundation helps overcome such objections.
Greg Duppier, Senior Vice President of Merchandising at Target states that ‘Target strives to be a responsible steward of the environment, providing our guests with the highest quality food choices’. He adds that ‘our guests have an array of sustainable seafood choices at great prices’.
Mr Duppier may fondly look on the shoppers who visit Target stores as guests but the reality is that whilst he may want to provide what he thinks of as a sustainable offering, his guests may want something different.
Wild Alaskan salmon is seasonal which means that Target shoppers will be only able to buy fresh salmon (in any individual store that has a fresh fish counter) for part of the year. For the remainder of time, the salmon will have been previously frozen and defrosted or frozen. Certainly, defrosted wild Alaskan salmon used to make sushi does not give the same high quality taste as when it is made from fresh salmon.
Mr Duppier also says that this sustainable seafood is available at great prices. Wild Alaskan salmon has consistently been priced higher than farmed, except for the cheaper and inferior quality chum salmon. Target may find that their guests are less willing to pay more for Wild Alaskan salmon if they have been used to the better value farmed salmon.
Julie Packard said that Target’s decision to source sustainable wild caught salmon instead of farmed will have a real impact on the marketplace and ultimately on the health of the oceans. This is a real puzzle. Surely, if other supermarkets follow Targets’ example and only sell wild caught Alaskan salmon, then demand will increase and place increasing pressure on the wild catch fisheries. Alaska will need to produce even more salmon and thus risk that the natural food sources around the Alaskan coast be decimated. Ms Packard’s and the Packard Foundation’s policy on salmon seems to have been ill-conceived but then whilst they continue to throw millions of dollars in pursuing their ideas, it is unlikely that they will be duly challenged.